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Three Critical November Votes

Family Policy Alliance of North Dakota® has been closely monitoring the many election races in our state, but the race for U.S. Senate has clearly been at the forefront, given its long-term consequences. The most recent development in this race was the vote by Senator Heidi Heitkamp against the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. We were very disappointed in Heidi’s vote and in the Democratic leadership’s successful effort to transform the confirmation hearings into a shameful circus. Heidi failed to represent the majority of North Dakotans last week; please remember this when you enter the voting booth on November 6.

While the focus in our state has been on the Senate election, there are two other critical votes that hang in the balance: Measures 1 and 3. Measure 1 appears deceptively simple. It purports to increase state government transparency and accountability. It’s hard to argue against those general principles. Unfortunately, that’s not what the measure really does. Measure 1 expands our state’s government regulation on private citizens and companies. It creates a vague, and in many instances unenforceable, mess. Specifically, more onerous components of the measure would do the following:

Create reporting requirements for any speech, communication, or publication that may “influence any …election” or “state government action.” This is an extraordinarily broad standard and would require that we report many of your names as donors.

Require for-profit corporations to report customers, investors, or lenders and media corporations to report their subscribers and advertisers. This would likely include organizations such as ours trying to influence public policy with analysis, opinion and reporting.

Create a new North Dakota Ethics Commission, which would go into existence without any implementing legislation and virtually unlimited powers and standards governing its conduct and investigations.

Create a right for any North Dakota taxpayer to enforce the constitutional amendment’s reporting provision. In other words, any state resident could ultimately end up enforcing your new reporting requirements in court.

Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this measure is that it would restrict your free speech. This is why organizations that rarely side with Family Policy Alliance of North Dakota, such as the ACLU, also oppose this measure. Further, what many don’t realize is that all of the beneficial parts of this measure are already covered in state law, including ethics rules that our legislature places on itself. I know you and I are all for transparency in government, but this is not the way to do it. Please vote “No” on Measure 1 and let’s stop this ill-conceived measure from becoming law.

Finally, Measure 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota, is a horrible idea. I’ve covered many of those reasons in previous emails, but suffice it to say, this is not a road we want to go down if we believe in pro-family values for our state.

To summarize,Family Policy Alliance of North Dakota has formally endorsed Kevin Cramer to represent us in the U.S. Senate, and formally takes a stand against ballot Measures 1 and 3. Let’s make the right, informed choices next month on these three critical votes, to preserve our pro-life and pro-family values in North Dakota and in Washington DC!